DULL AND/OR BORING?

[Valentine Mark Herman]

DULL OR BORING?

I am a member of the British-based Dull Men's Club (DMC) – which also includes women, and, indeed, claims to have 35,000 + members worldwide. ([e-mail])

The DMC's “mission statement” is to 'celebrate the ordinary... the life-changing magic, of simple, everyday, run-of-the-mill things'. (www.dullmensclub.com)

It's current Blogs include:

• Car Parks

• Telegraph Pole Appreciation Society

• Manhole Covers

• Wet Floor Signs

• Drainspotters

• Post WW2 prefab houses

• (forthcoming: a blog by yours truly on French shutters)

One of the current Blogs features a British postcard collector who reckons that he has well over a million postcards amassed over 50 years, He admits “..I’m obsessive at times. Last year in Berlin I picked up 114 postcards of the old Berlin Television Tower, the tallest structure in Germany, third tallest in the EU. It was constructed in 1965 by the German Democratic Republic.”

Which makes my, our, and Martin Parr's collection of Boring Postcards look pretty meager

One of the DMC's FAQ's (too many acronyms here!) asks:

“8. Are dull men the same as boring men?

“Yes and no. Boring men are dull men. But not all dull men are boring men. Boring men are dull men who don’t know when to stop; they go on and on and on. ”.

This dull/boring distinction led me to consult a book that I have been carrying around for 50+ years: The Nuttall Dictionary of English Synonyms and Antonyms. (No doubt the 'Net will have zillions of other sources, but I will stick to my Old Favourite.)

“Dull: Tiresome, boring, dry, uninteresting, barren, jejeune, fatiguing, tame, vapid, meagre, plain, dreary.

“Bore [but not 'boring']: Tire, weary, fatigue, vex, annoy, worry.”

So, and in conclusion, are our Postcards Dull and/or Boring? And, as I have argued from Day 1, do our Dull and/or Boring Postcards at some stage become Interesting Postcards?

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

Dull..."car parks" or "parking lots":

(I asked a boring question, again, ha!)

[Gerald Jatzek]

Anyway, "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot".

Στην Ελλάδα είναι;

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Dear Ms Nikolltsou, Your project for this week is to write a 500-word essay on 'The difference between 'car parks' and 'parking lots', including quotes from Dickens' 'Tale of Two Cities', 'The Iliad' and Shakespeare's 'Coriolanus. You may include no more than 2 photos and one illustration in your essay. The deadline for the submission of this project is 1 October.

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

Is this like "postman" and "mailman"?

..not like "boot" and "boot"? ..."trunk" and "trunk"?

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Dear Ms Nikoltsou,

Please do not use sexist terms like 'postman' and 'mailman'*.

I refer you to the fact that New York legally recognises 31 different 'gender identities', and insist that you be more precise in your usage of such identities.

Sincerely,

VM Herman*

****AAAAGH!!

HERman is, of course sexist/genderist!

As is HerMAN!

Following the NY guidelines, I should now be addressed as as 'VM Person of Transgender Experience'

Thank you and good night

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Dear Ms Nikoltsou, Your next project -- due 3 October -- is about the differences between British and American language in the motor trade. Please answer the following questions -- you will need to get at least 7 of them right before you can pass to the next level.

Q1. What, if any, is the difference between a 'car' and an 'automobile'?

Q2. What, if any, is the difference between a 'car park' and a 'parking lot'?

Q3. Can only cars be parked in car parks and can anything (dinosaurs, trains, etc) be parked in parking lots?

Q4. Without making references to elephants, what is the difference between a car's 'boot' and it's trunk'?

Q5. What, if any, is the difference between a car's 'bonnet' and it's 'hood'?

Q6. if an American gangster, wearing a pullover with a sort of head cover, is found shot dead in a car, is this a hooded hood, illed with a hood, and dumped in a hood?

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Dear Ms Nikoltsou,

This book may help you for your 'Car parks/Parking lots project:

And these two are reference works you should look at for your next-but-two project

Good luck! Val & Kevin

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Bonjour!

About the Dull Men's Club, I've got the Book and I've got the Certificate of Membership.

I haven't got the Mug and I haven't got the T-Shirt (only sold from their UK Shop).

And we've got some Boring/Dull and Interesting Postcards.

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

Seems to me that the Dull Men's Club gives certificates only to dull MEN...

as women are never dull :-)

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Thanks Katerina,

I read the Dull Men Book last night, and 3 +1 things about the Dull Mens' wives struck me:

i) the wives actively support their husbands in their dullness

ii) the wives put up with their husbands' eccentricities

iii) they get divorced.

The +1 is that some of the Dull Men don't have wives or partners which, when you come to think about it, is not all that suprising.

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

Perhaps this is not a 500 word essay,

unless there are 250 words and you read it twice?

But to answer some of those dull questions:

Homer, writes in the "Odyssey":

(or as a bard he may be chanting...)

"Sing to me, Muse, and through me tell the story

of that man skilled in all ways of contending,"

(what is a car park and what is a parking lot)

"The wanderer, harried years on end"

(not knowing that a postman is also a mailman...

and they are surely post person and mail person as well)

Charles Dickens, "Tale of Two Cities" states that:

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, "

(for boots in raining weather, and boots for the automobiles...)

"it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,"

(a foolish trunk to pack your travel attire in and a trunk for the spare tire,

and a trunk for the elephant, too) 

"it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,"

(time to wear a bonnet , or a jumper with a hood?)

 

 it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, 

(dark especially if the hood was wearing a hood and was 

walking in the hood, when someone picked up the hood of his car)

it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, 

we had everything before us, we had nothing before us...

we had car parks and we had parking lots,

we had postmen and we had mailmen..."

Shakespeare, the other Bard sang:

(via Cole Porter from "Kiss me Kate")

"Brush up your Shakespeare," MomKat,Kate,
Start quoting him now,
Brush up your Shakespeare, Val,
And the women you will wow...

"...If she says your behavior is heinous 

Kick her right in the Coriolanus"

Brush up your Shakespeare
And they'll all kow-tow...ya think?"

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Fantastic Katerina!

You pass.

With an A+ !